• goal for these experiments are around how to create replicable technologies for collective stewardship + environmental care? lots of tragedy of the commons / environmental devastation. world seems too big to change all at once, especially when it is something as pressing and distributed as climate. we first start a series of pilot experiments testing out collective stewardship with local environments, that have some implication of social connections + emotionality (ie this house was built by a collective / humans / friends; how do we feel connected and take care of it?)
  • regeneration -> social regeneration
• hypothesis: Spaces that respond to care (visually, socially, or digitally) sustain longer stewardship behaviors than spaces that remain inert.
  • Participatory art creation increases place attachment, which mediates greater environmental care behaviors.
  • Engaging in one care act (tidying, watering, fixing) increases likelihood of performing another (e.g., helping others, following norms).
• thesis / theme: collective stewardship leads to better caretaking of the environment
  • first we must prove that feelings of stewardship allow for better care in the environment
  • then, we must ask: what contributes to feelings of stewardship
• tangible question we are trying to answer:
  • does being a steward allow for better care of the environment
• define stewardship
  • Collective stewardship = distributed maintenance of shared infrastructure, sustained by social trust, coordination, and shared meaning.
    • observable prosocial behaviors that maintain or enhance a shared environment
  • from petra [https://petrakuenkel.com/article/collective-stewardship/] The six transformation enablers are: enlivening narratives, enabling structures and procedures, sustainability-oriented innovation, multi-issue, multi-level governance, guiding regulation and resource allocations, and empowering metrics.
    • enlivening narratives: What is the emotionally compelling narrative that speaks to actors who need to change their behaviour? How do we create resonance for change?
  • how much collective stewardship exists at place A vs place B
    • is the place taken care of better?
      • lights switched off during day and when away from home / lower energy impact
      • trash / messiness (need to index from baseline)
        • are people helping tidy up, as if it were their home?
      • are rules / restrictions respected? (random / meaningful + with intention / if important to “rulemaker”)
      • guest book logs (new / filled)
      • message to following guests (apart from reviews?)
      • presence of recycling / compost
      • volunteer participation (task board)
        • follow through rates (self trust, not just trust from community)
      • participation in site-based art project
      • trust - how should we measure this?
        • unmanned shop
        • mirrors
        • reciprocity - “insane trust”
      • survey around place attachment
      • number of people who continue to steward kaeru chan or go to another house in the network
      • donation box
• experiment design
  • kaeru-chan acts as an inviter + meta-experiment
    • presence + absence of kaeru chan (those who go to places with him, vs without him). not an official experiment bc not randomized, but instead increases top of the funnel for people GETTING to the site + being able to participate in experiments. ideally we also want this to become viral and a commercial part of our research lab (ie IP, lore, etc), so it’ll be hard to control the narrative. instead he is an INVITER for additional research
      • consider power issues, but can also expand other hypothesis testing
        • CHI as an expected output
      • how much do we tell people? maybe kaeru chan is a red herring
      • also hard to collect data over time
    • people step into house
      • we have a “log” of who has come from kaeru-chan pipeline to see if this changes anything (not randomized, but good baseline generally)
        • RFID lilypad
      • people opt into experiment (y/n)
        • they are given an object who asks for their help (local / global environmental differences): does locale matter?
          • if kaeru-chan was brought to house, then kaeru becomes the “object”
          • if not, then there is another house mascot / object (animism) that asks for their help: a stuffed animal, a small toy, etc. it’s also NFC chipped
        • prompts / randomization variables
          • [constant] invited by kaeru-chan (mascot: after opt in, nothing about kaeru-chan)
          • (y/n) narrative framing of stewardship
            • graphic novel for kaeru-chan: hit theoretical buttons around kaeru-chan - he misses his family, etc → increases stewardship feelings
              • norm statistically. maybe affect > stewardship
              • better to have result that is there
          • asks for help to learn about something in the house (renovations / gardening related)
          • asks for help to educate about local area (cultural, broader environment)
    • results are not based on the act of teaching / what they learned, but instead measurements for the rest of the house
      • // TODO [define measurements here]
        • trash on ground
        • garden
        • picture
        • or “test” at the end of the day- critical questions about akiya / what they remember or what their knowledge
          • outtake survey: measruing affect for kaeru-chan and for akiyas (normalize / index vs collective stewardship)
        • are people willing to give money
      • absent / present prompting and nonprompting (via “intake” survey)
      • survey notes / hypothesis on stewardship
• // FUTURE, we can also ask (after proving stewardship <> better caretaking): what more additional things / feelings / actions / built environments / technologies lead to better care in the environment
  • responsibility [stewardship]
  • place attachment [varied, relates to stewardship but in a more abstract way]
  • sacrifice [volunteering / cleaning trash, “staking something”] - keeping vs donation of “earned amount” (dan ariely ref)
  • inspiration [artistic experiences]
  • extension of trust [unmanned spaces]

additional TODO

• define measurements for collective stewardship
• in protocol, we must also include akiya sites to be approved
  • draft a letter of support; that they are working with us / familiar with us saying they are ok with research being done on the site
    • first draft end of nov - to get feedback from the IRB
    • preserving anonymity + any other spicy variables (geotracking)
  • must also be in japanese //rushtranslate
    • joe to double check with yuka